I said, “I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately. For a while, I thought Tomlinson was just leverage. A way to keep me on the job. You’d spare him; I’d keep working for you. But you’ve been pushing so hard, I’m starting to think he worries you for some reason. Something I don’t know about. Is that why you want him taken out?”
“Does it matter?”
“If I had a choice, it would.”
“You do. Your buddy doesn’t.”
“It won’t be me. I’ll never do it. Not a chance.”
“Never say never. For now, you’re being nice, buying him time. But time’s going to run out, you know.”
“We’ll see. Now, what did you have in mind?”
I told Harrington to tell me about the assignments. I’d see if I could fit one in between having a baby, running my business, and trying to live a normal life.
Abu Sayyaf, a violent Islamic fanatic, had helped plan a train bombing in Madrid-killed a couple hundred innocent souls-and was now working on a plot to target school buses in the U.S., according to intelligence assets.
“Various agencies have people tracking the progress,” Harrington said. “But they don’t do the kind of work we do. Up close. Personal.”
Terrorists believe they can implode the scaffolding of a society by creating chaos. Bombing schoolkids was madness, but an effective madness if chaos was the goal.
Hal’s sources had told him that Sayyaf would soon be taking a cruise, possibly out of Lauderdale. They weren’t sure of the dates. Something about his European mistress having problems shaking her husband.
“What I’m thinking is, maybe you can introduce yourself to the gentleman one night while you’re at sea. A quick hello. Then good-bye.”
I knew what that meant. Could picture it. I had done a similar assignment years before. The complexities of International Maritime Law, and a dark, dark night, are both safe havens of a sort.
“The job’s yours if you want it.”
I had no qualms about intercepting a man capable of planting bombs on school buses. A couple of years back, I might’ve struggled with the notion. No longer. For better or worse, I’ve come to terms with who I am, and what I am. Darwinism describes the human condition as accurately as it explains the competitive process that is natural selection.
Harrington told me, “I’ve got one more. You’ll find this interesting. Bioterrorism, maybe. Biosabotage, at the very least. We’ve got a lead on what we think is a network. There’s a small-time smuggler named Bat-tuy Nguyen who’s trying to go big-time. Vietnamese, but out of Bangkok and Cuba. He’s into the illegal reptile trade, importing dangerous exotics.”
I was listening. Knew Harrington would save the best for last.
“Nguyen’s been branching out. His people have been buying nasty stuff no normal collector wants. Fifty-gallon drums of contaminated water from malaria hotspots in Gabon and Cambodia. Shit holes of the world. Rats from a Ugandan laboratory. Bribing the staff. The rats have been infected with the plague. Bubonic, and there’s another type-”
“Rats don’t carry plague; their fleas do,” I interrupted. “Bubonic and pneumonic. Rats carry the fleas. Jesus Christ, is he selling this stuff to people who have the technology to do something with it?”
“We don’t know, it’s all fresh intel. We’re not even sure if the stuff is headed for the States. But something happened today that spiked our interest.” From the man’s confident tone-I’ve got you hooked. You’re back-I knew what it was before he said it.
“Nguyen’s been importing contaminated water from East Africa, too. The CIA’s people thought it was the same deal. Mosquito larvae. Someone was buying. But, this afternoon, we got a report through the Centers for Disease Control saying that a certain bigshot Florida biologist had identified a weird sort of parasite near Disney World. Something called ‘guinea worms.’ Maybe they’ve spread through the water system.”
He continued, “Nationwide, we have some other indicators, too. California, Arizona, some other places. Small-time bio-attacks aimed at screwing up local economies. But Disney? This one’s big enough to put our little team on the job.”
Yes. He had me.
I said, “I found the parasites in a corpse, a friend’s brother, not in the water system. You don’t want to hear about it.” I was thinking about the guinea worm samples I had in my backpack. If Jones had broken the jars when he jumped me, I might have done more than dump him over the railing. Or… maybe putting him in the water with the parasites was the worst thing I could’ve done.
Salt water, but he wouldn’t have understood the difference.
“Any idea who’s buying the stuff?”
“No. We prioritize here. Have to, there’s so much going on. The bioterror operation moved up to about twentieth on the list this afternoon.”
“Then let me give you some places to start.”
I told him about Jobe Applebee. Told him to have his people check out the man’s business connections, any groups he was associated with. “The Albedo Society may be one,” I told him. “There may be room for fringe activism there. Tropicane Sugar’s another. Big money can rationalize just about anything. Also, do a search for the conspiracy theory types. People who hate the sugar industry. Or Disney.”
“There are people who hate Disney?”
Harrington was being facetious. On this nation’s paranoiac periphery, there are groups who believe Disney is at the core of global conspiracies that range from controlling the World Bank to building radio towers that communicate with sex-starved aliens.
Studies have been done on people who believe in conspiracies. Clinical paranoia, plus nonspecific rage, are two common components. Crazy and angry: a dangerous combination.
I said, “Someone else who might’ve been connected with Applebee is Desmond Stokes, founder of EPOC, an environmental group that contracted Applebee. Stokes is the phobic type, got rich making vitamins, but also lost his medical license, and had to move to the Bahamas. So maybe he still has a grudge.
“I’m thinking out loud here, putting together names and subjects that seem to intersect in an unlikely way: Applebee, an employer, germs, disease, an exotic parasite, water.”
“The ever-logical Dr. Ford.”
“I try, Hal.”
“Stokes. I’ve heard the name. I’ll have someone ship the data to you as we collect it. Doc? Let’s get something clear first ”
I waited.
“You’re accepting the assignments?”
“This one. Yes.”
“What about Abu Sayyaf, the bomber-”
“Depends on the timing. Someone needs to take care of him. We agree about that.”
He seemed satisfied. “Then you’re our lead tracker on this one. Work it from your end, too. When you do find Nguyen-or anyone else upper level who’s involved in this kind of tradecraft-”
I said, “I know, I know. Etemalize. Your euphemism.”
“Or assassinate. We can use the word. Privately. We now have four ways to officially get around Executive Order 12333. So it’s legal again. I’ll have the papers made out.”
Harrington said that I’d be referred to as an unspecified contractor, name classified.
“Just so you know.”
14
LOG
14 Dec. Tuesday
Wind NW 18 knots.
Sunset 17:38.
Manatee w/calves under dock. Wood smoke strong, curing fish at marina.
Orders received: 30 Chordates-sea horses, file fish; live barnacle clusters; 24 horseshoe crabs; 24 brittle stars amp; anemones mix.
Low tide-0.9 @ noon.
Run, collect, windsurf late. Collect copepods. Mix w/Dracunculus.
– MDF
Early the next morning, I called Dewey. She was sleepy but civil. Sounded more like her old acerbic self.
“You keep forgetting the time difference, bonehead,” she yawned. “When it’s this damn cold, the roosters wait until they smell coffee before they crow. And it’s gonna be another hour before I start coffee.”
She had an appointment with her obstetrician that afternoon, she told me. So she was going to make the best of it while in town, and have some fun. “We’re going shopping.”